Quotes from my students the past couple months...

"Is it Christmas today?"

"Dooooo dooo dooooooooooooo dooooo dooooooooo"

"Ms. Magiera, I like your shirt."

"Me sees a flower."

"There's no school today?"

"I'm thankful for my tia, because she died. She died in my swimming pool, but then my dad tried to rescue her, but she still died."

"The dog black, he is boy?"

"A B C D E F G H I J K..."

"Ms. Magiera, I like your shoes."

"She put something in her mouth!"

"I see an exclamation point!"

"No school today?"

"He keeps touching me!"

"My mom went away to learn to be a better mom, because she smokes and she drinks."

"Sit criss-cross applesauce! You have to listen to the teacher!"

"Is there school tomorrow?"

"Ms. Magiera! Yesterday, I ate pizza!"

"Ms. Magiera, I like your necklace."

"I see a question mark!"

"We're on red! Stop talking! Look--red!"

"Put your shoe back on so Ms. Magiera doesn't take it again!"

"Stop all this noise! It's too noisy! Aghh why are they being so noisy?"

"Spinach gives you a healthy colon!"

Looks like I'll have 25 students next year...

...if I have a job in the district next year!


Oldest school in Alum Rock District to close



SAN JOSE, CA (KGO) -- Parents in San Jose are reacting with anger and sadness to the decision by the Alum Rock School Board to increase class sizes and close the oldest school in the district.

This is not the only district in the state to have to close a school or make other cost cuts in order to grapple with a funding decline due to state budget cuts.

But when you've got a school like Pala Middle that has been around for 71 years, there's bound to be even more emotion. Thursday's decision to close it drew boos from the community. This morning the reality is setting in and it's drawing tears.

From tears to anger and disbelief, parents of Pala Middle School students say they're not sure about the future of their children's education when the school closes its doors next year.
"It's not right. I don't know where the kids are going to go," said parent Angel Gomez.

It's the end of an era of education in the East San Jose community. Opened in 1938, this is the oldest school in the Alum Rock School District.

Now, 480 students will be redirected to other nearby middle schools because budget cuts led to a board decision last night to close this one campus.

None of the protests from hundreds of students, teachers and parents could stop the decision, and teachers say it will hurt the continuity of working closely with students they get to know.

"I was actually hoping to work with them another year, and at this point I'm not going to have that opportunity. They're going to be dispersed throughout the district," said Pala Middle School teacher Michael Kretsch.

Teachers have been told they will not be laid off, although 60 to 70 positions will be eliminated through attrition or retirement. The district's three-year budget plan also includes increasing class sizes at all its other schools.

The ratio will go from 21 to 25 students next year, then to 31 per teacher after that.

"I'm not happy with the state, what it's been doing... that's where it all began," said Pala Middle School Principal Suzanne Burneikis.

Burneikis understands the steep decline in state funding is what prompted the Alum Rock district to go so far. But she's invested nearly three decades working for the district and is confident the staff there cares enough to educate with whatever resources remain.

"In June when we need to leave, I'm sure there will be tears, but we can hold our head up high knowing that we have given them the best possible education," said Burneikis.

The Alum Rock School District's first interim financial report suggests these budget cut actions will save $11.5 million. Next March, its second financial statement comes out and could lead to further reductions.

(Copyright ©2009 KGO-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

I emailed my 1st grade teacher last week...

...and here is part of her email response to me:
Hi Alex,

Of course I remember you! You may not know this, but you were in my first class at Grove. I had taught two years in Houston and then moved back "home" to the suburbs. Anyway, your class has always held a special place in my heart because you guys were my rookie class in Northbrook. On top of that, I remember so clearly what a great group you all were. You in particular were a true gem. Adorable, hard working, smart, fun and a kind friend to your classmates. Oops. That kind of sounded like a report card. I still have a book of poems you made for me. The pages are torn and a little yellowed, but it always brightens my day and brings a smile to my face when I read it. I share it with my class every year when we study and write poetry. You are always an inspiration to my 7 year old friends.

Is it any wonder I loved first grade and my teacher that year?

Here's a photo of me, way back when...believe it or not, 1st grade was 15 years ago:

Quick notes...

...since it's been a while.

Well this week has been surprisingly great! Most of you probably know that my mom has been in the hospital for almost two weeks now, so I wasn't feeling so great the Monday after I found out...

(I found out on a Saturday).

Of course, that Monday, after I had a sub for three days, my principal had her formal observation of me.

So, this week, I had to meet with her to go over the observation.
My principal: So, Alex, how do you think your lesson went?
Me: Well, I thought it was alright. I don't think it was my best, but at the same time, it could have been worse.
My principal: Oh really?
Me: Yes?
My principal: Well, I thought it was great--really, I was very impressed.

SIGH OF RELIEF. My principal is happy=I am happy.

Then, today, my advisor from my university came...and YAY, another great observation.

Add to that the fact that we are hoping my mom will be home in a couple days, and I am feeling pretty good. Well, and I got 12 hours of sleep last night (6 P.M. to 6 A.M.--crazy).

Anyway...off to bed...

"Oh c'mon Will, just take off your shirt and tell us!"

One last one...

...odds are, you'll cry, but I always remember how BLESSED I am when I watch it.

Woops!

I forgot Chris.

Well no, I didn't forget him, I just forgot a picture of him.
So here ya go:

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm very excited to lie in bed all tomorrow and watch the Thanksgiving episodes of Friends.

Tomorrow I'll have to post a list of what I'm thankful for...but for now I just have to mention that I found out yet another friend of mine is engaged (and one is actually getting married this weekend on her break since it's the only time she and her fiance would be home for a while). ...While I'm very happy for them, am I crazy for not being engaged at 22?? Should I really find it easy to think of at least 10 of my friends who are married? ...and more who are engaged?

Anyway...enjoy this in the meantime:

What can I say...I have a handbag addiction...

...so I will post this... :)


* Home
* Our Friends
* Must See Boutiques
* Tools For The Designer
* Lookbooks
* Contributors
* About LDB

Featured
New Giveaway! Add this to your list…A Beso Handbag
By Andrea ⋅ November 17, 2009 ⋅ Email This Post Email This Post ⋅ Print This Post Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment
Filed Under beso handbags, giveaway, holiday, johanna penagos, shopping
LAST DAY TO ENTER TO WIN!!!
Grace $74.00- Beso Handbag

Grace $74.00- Beso Handbags

We are pleased to bring back a favorite designer for our first Holiday Countdown Giveaway Event! This event is about making your holiday shopping easy. We not only search through hundreds of designers to find the best gems, we are also giving them away each week!

WEEK ONE opens with Beso Handbags designed by Johanna Penagos out of California. We love Johanna, because her handbags are feminine and yet very practical. Casual and fashionable. And we love her even more because she is GIVING AWAY Grace, a very popular piece from her current collection, to one lucky LDB reader!

Grace is a large-size purse with a great modern shape. She features two shoulder straps and a flap with a magnetic snap closure. This bag measures 15.5 ” at the widest point, 9.5 ” tall and 5 ” deep. Her exterior is constructed of the very soft, yet durable, “coffee corduroy”. Her lining is sewn in the brand new “autumn berry”. Grace’s interior features two open pockets, perfect for your cell phone or small essentials. There is also a zipper pocket. The Grace bag is constructed with extra support in the bottom to help hold her shape. A large red flower pin adorns Grace for the holidays, but the pin is removable and can also be worn on your favorite coat. Grace is a beso handbags best seller and a customer favorite, returning for the fall/winter season.

So, your mom, daughter, sister, best friend or maybe YOU could be the new owner of Grace by simply commenting below with your answer to this question:

“What is your favorite gift you were ever given?”

You must answer this question to be entered to win, but you may collect ADDITIONAL ENTRIES by:

- Tweeting this post (1 entry)

- Adding this post to your Facebook page (1 entry)

- Blogging about this contest (3 entries)

- Linking to this post on any blog or social network (1 entry)

- Become a fan on Facebook (Already a fan? Refer your friends) (1 entry)

Please come back here and tell us what you did. We’ll announce the winner on Monday night (11/23) at 10pm PST.

Good luck! …And happy shopping!

grace-beso-handbag-2

grace-beso-handbag-3
By Andrea Pohlot

http://littledesignerbook.com/index.php/new-giveaway-add-this-to-your-lista-beso-handbag/

From Post Secret...

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/
:)

Holiday Traditions I Miss...

1. Going to see A Christmas Carol at the Goodman Theatre.


2. Celebrating birthdays, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day in Disney World.





3. Waking up at 4 on Christmas, watching A Christmas Story until 7 A.M. when I can finally wake everyone else up, and then not being allowed to vacuum or set the table, because I'm "doing it wrong."

A Holiday tradition I'm VERY excited for this year? Having the entire family at HOME and together (Chris, my mom, my dad, and me) for the first time in FOUR years. :)

Should I feel guilty...

...that I could not be more excited for the weekend, to take a couple days to go to Chicago, and for Thanksgiving and Christmas being just around the corner?

A little taste of wonderful snow at home in Chicago...



...and a little something interesting from the author of Eat, Pray, Love (a phenomenal book if you haven't read it):


SOME THOUGHTS ON WRITING


Sometimes people ask me for help or suggestions about how to write, or how to get published. Keeping in mind that this is all very ephemeral and personal, I will try to explain here everything that I believe about writing. I hope it is useful. It's all I know.



I believe that – if you are serious about a life of writing, or indeed about any creative form of expression – that you should take on this work like a holy calling. I became a writer the way other people become monks or nuns. I made a vow to writing, very young. I became Bride-of-Writing. I was writing’s most devotional handmaiden. I built my entire life around writing. I didn’t know how else to do this. I didn’t know anyone who had ever become a writer. I had no, as they say, connections. I had no clues. I just began.



I took a few writing classes when I was at NYU, but, aside from an excellent workshop taught by Helen Schulman, I found that I didn’t really want to be practicing this work in a classroom. I wasn’t convinced that a workshop full of 13 other young writers trying to find their voices was the best place for me to find my voice. So I wrote on my own, as well. I showed my work to friends and family whose opinions I trusted. I was always writing, always showing. After I graduated from NYU, I decided not to pursue an MFA in creative writing. Instead, I created my own post-graduate writing program, which entailed several years spent traveling around the country and world, taking jobs at bars and restaurants and ranches, listening to how people spoke, collecting experiences and writing constantly. My life probably looked disordered to observers (not that anyone was observing it that closely) but my travels were a very deliberate effort to learn as much as I could about life, expressly so that I could write about it.



Back around the age of 19, I had started sending my short stories out for publication. My goal was to publish something (anything, anywhere) before I died. I collected only massive piles of rejection notes for years. I cannot explain exactly why I had the confidence to be sending off my short stories at the age of 19 to, say, The New Yorker, or why it did not destroy me when I was inevitably rejected. I sort of figured I’d be rejected. But I also thought: “Hey – somebody has to write all those stories: why not me?” I didn’t love being rejected, but my expectations were low and my patience was high. (Again – the goal was to get published before death. And I was young and healthy.) It has never been easy for me to understand why people work so hard to create something beautiful, but then refuse to share it with anyone, for fear of criticism. Wasn’t that the point of the creation – to communicate something to the world? So PUT IT OUT THERE. Send your work off to editors and agents as much as possible, show it to your neighbors, plaster it on the walls of the bus stops – just don’t sit on your work and suffocate it. At least try. And when the powers-that-be send you back your manuscript (and they will), take a deep breath and try again. I often hear people say, “I’m not good enough yet to be published.” That’s quite possible. Probable, even. All I’m saying is: Let someone else decide that. Magazines, editors, agents – they all employ young people making $22,000 a year whose job it is to read through piles of manuscripts and send you back letters telling you that you aren’t good enough yet: LET THEM DO IT. Don’t pre-reject yourself. That’s their job, not yours. Your job is only to write your heart out, and let destiny take care of the rest.



As for discipline – it’s important, but sort of over-rated. The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing will always disappoint you. Your laziness will always disappoint you. You will make vows: “I’m going to write for an hour every day,” and then you won’t do it. You will think: “I suck, I’m such a failure. I’m washed-up.” Continuing to write after that heartache of disappointment doesn’t take only discipline, but also self-forgiveness (which comes from a place of kind and encouraging and motherly love). The other thing to realize is that all writers think they suck. When I was writing “Eat, Pray, Love”, I had just as a strong a mantra of THIS SUCKS ringing through my head as anyone does when they write anything. But I had a clarion moment of truth during the process of that book. One day, when I was agonizing over how utterly bad my writing felt, I realized: “That’s actually not my problem.” The point I realized was this – I never promised the universe that I would write brilliantly; I only promised the universe that I would write. So I put my head down and sweated through it, as per my vows.



I have a friend who’s an Italian filmmaker of great artistic sensibility. After years of struggling to get his films made, he sent an anguished letter to his hero, the brilliant (and perhaps half-insane) German filmmaker Werner Herzog. My friend complained about how difficult it is these days to be an independent filmmaker, how hard it is to find government arts grants, how the audiences have all been ruined by Hollywood and how the world has lost its taste…etc, etc. Herzog wrote back a personal letter to my friend that essentially ran along these lines: “Quit your complaining. It’s not the world’s fault that you wanted to be an artist. It’s not the world’s job to enjoy the films you make, and it’s certainly not the world’s obligation to pay for your dreams. Nobody wants to hear it. Steal a camera if you have to, but stop whining and get back to work.” I repeat those words back to myself whenever I start to feel resentful, entitled, competitive or unappreciated with regard to my writing: “It’s not the world’s fault that you want to be an artist…now get back to work.” Always, at the end of the day, the important thing is only and always that: Get back to work. This is a path for the courageous and the faithful. You must find another reason to work, other than the desire for success or recognition. It must come from another place.



Here’s another thing to consider. If you always wanted to write, and now you are A Certain Age, and you never got around to it, and you think it’s too late…do please think again. I watched Julia Glass win the National Book Award for her first novel, “The Three Junes”, which she began writing in her late 30’s. I listened to her give her moving acceptance speech, in which she told how she used to lie awake at night, tormented as she worked on her book, asking herself, “Who do you think you are, trying to write a first novel at your age?” But she wrote it. And as she held up her National Book Award, she said, “This is for all the late-bloomers in the world.” Writing is not like dancing or modeling; it’s not something where – if you missed it by age 19 – you’re finished. It’s never too late. Your writing will only get better as you get older and wiser. If you write something beautiful and important, and the right person somehow discovers it, they will clear room for you on the bookshelves of the world – at any age. At least try.



There are heaps of books out there on How To Get Published. Often people find the information in these books contradictory. My feeling is -- of COURSE the information is contradictory. Because, frankly, nobody knows anything. Nobody can tell you how to succeed at writing (even if they write a book called “How To Succeed At Writing”) because there is no WAY; there are, instead, many ways. Everyone I know who managed to become a writer did it differently – sometimes radically differently. Try all the ways, I guess. Becoming a published writer is sort of like trying to find a cheap apartment in New York City: it’s impossible. And yet…every single day, somebody manages to find a cheap apartment in New York City. I can’t tell you how to do it. I’m still not even entirely sure how I did it. I can only tell you – through my own example – that it can be done. I once found a cheap apartment in Manhattan. And I also became a writer.



In the end, I love this work. I have always loved this work. My suggestion is that you start with the love and then work very hard and try to let go of the results. Cast out your will, and then cut the line. Please try, also, not to go totally freaking insane in the process. Insanity is a very tempting path for artists, but we don’t need any more of that in the world at the moment, so please resist your call to insanity. We need more creation, not more destruction. We need our artists more than ever, and we need them to be stable, steadfast, honorable and brave – they are our soldiers, our hope. If you decide to write, then you must do it, as Balzac said, “like a miner buried under a fallen roof.” Become a knight, a force of diligence and faith. I don’t know how else to do it except that way. As the great poet Jack Gilbert said once to young writer, when she asked him for advice about her own poems: “Do you have the courage to bring forth this work? The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say YES.”



Good luck.

Movin on up...

...I forgot to mention that our theme song for our school this year is "Movin on up"...yes, The Jeffersons' theme song. It plays EVERY day at our school.

Also, my principal said the kindergarten team is doing well, but honestly, I am nervous about my class. They are working hard, but some are SO behind already...and even though I have kids coming in early every morning, 30 minutes extra a week is not enough.

In other news, just found out someone who teaches in a nearby school district was fired...
Here's a little comparison to put in perspective where some corps members teach. This man taught in a school district in East Palo Alto, ranked 679 out of 752 school districts in California. Palo Alto on the other hand ranks 23 out of 752...and is literally just around the corner from EPA.

...and though my school district is doing MUCH better than the other, it is ranked 593 out of 752. Not so hot.

Off to do some work...and hope that I can figure out WHAT to do to help my kids...

Sneezing and coughing

I feel tempted to sneeze purposefully on a couple children in my class and follow the uncovered sneeze with: "How do you like it when I sneeze on you? Feels gross and icky hey?"

There are some times when I can use that methodology with students--"How would you feel if someone laughed at you?" ...and while I may not sneeze on anyone tomorrow, I may ask: "How would you feel if I sneezed all over you?" because there are WAY too many germs flying around my classroom...and as my management improves and their eyes and bodies are all turned towards me, it means those germs are headed straight towards me too...

I've slept for a total of 20 hours this week since Sunday night (5 nights...you do the math...). You would think that perhaps after being up since 6 A.M. I might fall asleep by 9 P.M. today...but oh no, it's 9:09...and I'm awake.

Simply Sleep I will be purchasing you tomorrow.

1. Went to Palo Alto today for dinner. Wow. It was like being at home...downtown Evanston/Lake Forest-ish. Didn't realize how much I missed that...

2. ...Or how much I missed my friends. I'm being a baby about this, but I don't want to make new friends, because A. I already have good friends, and B. The only people I see are other TFA people, and well that's more likely than not a friendship of convenience.

3. Had such a wonderful dinner today--two hours of genuine happiness. That needs to happen more often...real happiness... :)

Grad school...

Got my first assignment back today.

As we were about to leave, our professors told us that they tried to comment a lot throughout our assignments, and I saw people reading post-its placed throughout their papers.

One of my professor hands me my assignment.
No post-its.
This was all it said under comments:
Alex, this journal is filled with reflection. You have made many strides in building rapport with your students and their families. I hope this process continues to be a positive one for you. I can tell that you have made every effort to understand the research involved and to apply it to your classroom. Best of luck!

...and I have no idea which professor wrote it.



Fun story from this morning:
student: "Ms. Magiera! I couldn't bring my new folder back today."
me: "Why not? I gave you a new one yesterday, and you were so excited. Remember if you bring it back everyday you can keep it!"
student: "My grandma threw it in the garbage, and then there was stuff all over it."

...So I'm guessing her parent didn't see my note asking when a good time to call home is...and I will instead be calling unannounced tomorrow...since this student has to stay in for the first five minutes of recess everyday to do her homework from the previous day.


P.S. Just had to open a diet coke at 9:30 P.M. Stupid migraine. Here's hoping I'm still asleep by 10. :)

Realization of the day

Teaching is hard, but it's not the hardest part of Teach For America. If teaching were all I had to focus on, my life would be dandy, but the reality is there's SO much more to do than just teach.

There are all the phone calls home, completely re-doing and cleaning out a classroom someone has taught in for 5 years, being in grad school, talking with TONS of advisors, etc. etc.

I think I could and can be a really great teacher, but it stinks that right now my lesson plans are actually not the first thing on my to-do list since there are more important things like making sure my classroom is functional and clean and not ant-infested...and that sucks.

In other news, my kids walked in this morning to our class and said: "It's so pretty! I love our classroom!" Needless to say staying till 8:30 on Friday was well worth it.

Don't have an exciting or creative title today.

Well the week that had a rocky start ended well...although with exhaustion of course.

I won't elaborate on Tuesday as it was not fun and not worth re-telling. However, I will mention the good things that happened this week:

1. Curriculum consultant visited my classroom. Said she was amazed when she heard it's my first year. Me=a bundle of nerves about having this lady visit.

2. President of the school board visited my classroom. Seeing as he only visited my school for 3 hours, I was surprised to see he popped in my classroom. Also happy with what he saw.

3. Had a really good meeting with my principal too.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure WHY my principal sends these people to observe my way as I'm a first year teacher...especially since the other two A.M. kinder teachers are phenomenal (one is the lead kinder teacher). Our school is the biggest grade school in the district, with over 700 students and 30+ teachers K-5, so there are MANY rooms to visit.

Plus, I get SO nervous, but I guess I just have to get used to it. The good news is that my principal has always said really good things to me after these visits. That's not to say I'm an amazing teacher...I've had rough days...but she fortunately has only popped in on very good moments. For example, Friday, when the board president visited, my kids were working in 4 independent centers while my co-teacher and I gave the unit assessment. It's never bad for someone to see your class of 4 and 5 year olds working independently and quietly.

Now I just have to hope my kids' learning actually reflects the good things my principal sees.

4. Stayed at school yesterday until 8:30 P.M. cleaning and rearranging my room. Sure it was a Friday night, and it exhausted me to no end (I woke up at noon today, and I'm anticipating I'll fall asleep by 9 P.M....), but our classroom is actually starting to look like a real Kindergarten classroom instead of a messy portable. Our classroom needs to be a safe learning environment, a place where learning is encouraged not stifled, and I'm determined to get it there.

5. I'm going to get a good night's rest tonight! Woohoo!

6. Also, on an unrelated note, it's my uncle's birthday, and sadly Hoops and Yo-Yo cards are not loading on my computer...so one will be coming Unkie, but Chris and I say happy birthday! :)

Even better day...

With the exception of not sleeping much, I had a much better day.

My student who was one of the ones who ran around the classroom, pushing and stomping his feet, has been doing AMAZING, and he even made me a bracelet today. Too cute.

In other news, how are my friends ALL over the world? Really.
Julie--South Korea
Brittany--Africa
Becca--Paris
Robin--London

What do you do when your current friends are beyond amazing...but a gazillion miles away? Skype??

Missing lots of people...and not just those out of the country...

P.S. Kind Campaign on Dr. Phil tomorrow!

I don't watch Dr. Phil, but you should...and I'm going to try to tomorrow! Molly and Lauren will be on for the Kind Campaign!!!!

Today=much better.
Have to go work on an assignment...but didn't want any of you to think I was falling apart... :)

If only this book had Alexandra in the title...

I've now cried five times today.
It was a rough day.

On the bright side, yesterday and today my class was complimented for having a very straight and quiet line when we walked to our classroom.
Still, a huge part of me would like to curl up in bed tomorrow instead of going to school...and that's what sucks. I actually don't feel excited about tomorrow--instead I feel stressed, tired, and exhausted...

...blargh. Happy notes to come soon. I promise. :)

Kind Campaign...in the New York Times!

Lauren, one of the founders of the Kind Campaign and a Pepperdine graduate, was quoted in the NY Times. If you have yet to check out the website and non-profit, DO IT NOW.
www.kindcampaign.com


When the Cool Get Hazed

By TINA KELLEY
Published: September 26, 2009

Girl-on-girl bullying or hazing is old news by now, for anyone who has seen “Mean Girls” or “Heathers” or “Gossip Girl”: popular girls organize a perfectly-coiffed and designer-clothed gang; fringe girl is targeted; bullies use their meanness and power to further marginalize fringe girl and reassert their status.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FIGHTING BACK
American Girl recently introduced a doll, Chrissa, who takes on bullies who have targeted her at her new school. (No, she doesn’t talk.)


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But news of a “slut list” at a top-ranked New Jersey high school last week highlighted two disturbing points: the increasingly explicit and sexual nature of the taunts, magnified by the Internet. And, in another twist, the perception that allegations of promiscuity — however fictional — are a badge of honor, a way into the cool group, and not a cause for shame.

The result is a 180-degree reversal of what a “slut list” might have meant, especially when the parents of these girls were growing up.

That the list and other hazing went on for more than 10 years at Millburn High School in New Jersey was only half the shock to parents and the national news media who set up cameras outside the school, which includes students from the affluent Essex County towns of Millburn and Short Hills. The repercussions to officials for allowing it to go on, only lightly checked over that time, are still playing out.

More surprising to many was the cachet that seemed to come to those on the list — even though it accuses the anointed girls of sleeping around, lap dancing and lusting after their own brothers.

The list makes unsettling links between a girl’s power and popularity and what she allegedly will do with a boy. Or seven of them.

And yet students, recent graduates and even the principal (who, with other administrators, was sent for sensitivity training last week) said a spot on the “slut list,” which spread on Facebook, has been the way popular and athletic ninth-grade girls have been tapped by their older counterparts to possibly take their place. As one recent graduate commented on The Local, The Times’ hyperlocal news Web site covering Millburn: “Being on the list means you are rich, you wear expensive clothing, and probably fall under the general umbrella of attractiveness. Essentially, the slut list is the Goldman Sachs daughters list, a distorted assertion of wealth and power within a highly pressured upper middle class environment.”

So the whiff of sexual prowess actually raises the status of girls on the forbidden list among their high school peers. It’s a celebration of machismo, but for girls only.

Experts say adults should be concerned when sex becomes a theme for meanness, in part because girls have powerful tools like cellphone cameras and the Internet to carry out their schemes.

Rosalind Wiseman, an expert on adolescent female behavior, is planning a new edition of her book, “Queen Bees and Wannabes,” because the 2002 version quickly became outdated. “There was not enough information on hazing, technology and the more graphic sexual stuff,” she said. “It’s like a generation passed in the past five years.” She mentioned cases of college girls who hazed younger ones by compelling them to have sex with or give oral sex to certain boys on campus.

More cause for alarm, experts say, is that such behavior is taking hold with younger and younger students — the girls on the slut list at Millburn High were as young as 14, and problems arise among girls in grade school as well. “They’re being conditioned, taught, parented and expected in the schools to be older, more sexualized, snippy and adolescent,” Ms. Wiseman said.

If it weren’t so insidious in its own right, the kind of childhood bullying that inspired Mattel to add a new American Girl doll this year — Chrissa, who moves to a new school and is immediately targeted by three girls in her class — would almost seem quaint.

While any form of bullying or hazing is bad, experts, school officials and most parents agree, the added element of not just sexuality but promiscuity has many of them particularly concerned.

“I think girls target each other in the most demeaning way possible,” said Lauren Parsekian, a documentary filmmaker and president of the Kind Campaign, based in Los Angeles. “That’s what I’ve seen, with the types of words they call each other, rumors they like to spread about each other. It’s definitely a theme we’ve seen because it’s an embarrassing thing, to say someone’s doing things with other guys, rumors that aren’t true.”

Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, said the language of the slut list borrows from the objectifying way men have often talked to other men about women. It not only makes it O.K. now for boys to continue to do this, she said, but it confuses girls.

“I think it really undermines a person’s ability to define their own sexuality, to discover and really own their own sexuality,” Ms. O’Neill said.

She added, “you’re just continuing to create a world in which women in fact cannot participate in equal footing in the life of their community.”

Update in bullet points...

•Met with a student's mom this week. How amazing is it that her son can write from 1-24 and knows most of his letters...yet she cannot read or write. I hate that. I hate that when her son starts to read and starts to write stories and essays he will have to read them to her. SHE is the reason he tries hard and works hard, and unfortunately she won't be able to read his work, but you know what? She will be unbelievably proud of him.

•Talked with a friend who is doing TFA in a different district in the Bay. She teaches 7th grade, and oh are our challenges different. She has 29 students, 10 of whom have IEPs (individualized education plans), 5 are emotionally disturbed, and 3 cut themselves...in the back of the room...as she teaches. I'm so proud of her for teaching there and hoping that I can do something to help her make it through the next two years. Cause she has a real TFA experience vs. my TFA-lite.

•"I just FELT your sneeze on my leg. You need to cover your mouth when you sneeze, because that is how people get sick." I stopped class and cleaned off my leg. No wonder I'm sick.


•Played freeze dance with my kids on Friday. Sometimes things that have no curricular relevance can be the best part of the day.


•Also had a girl kick and scream for 25 minutes, throwing a full-fledged temper tantrum in class. I've never seen a child over the age of 3 do that until I met her. My response when she calmed down: "I'm not your babysitter, and I'm not your mom; I'm your teacher. I am here to teach you to learn, and if you are screaming, you are not ready to learn. You have a workbook page to do, so get going." Harsh? Maybe a little. Necessary? Yes. Still to come? Meeting with parents.


•Anyone have suggestions for teaching rhyming? I spent 25 minutes on it Friday...with no luck. Blank stares, far too often. I'm thinking Monday we may have to dance and sing some rhymes.

•Went to a training session today. It's always great when it ends with: "Oh, everyone, we have one more announcement before you go. Today, four cars were broken into in the parking lot. Now we've been monitoring the lot since, but please check your car before leaving to make sure everything is there." Thank goodness my car was in a different lot.

•Getting my haircut tomorrow. About time.

•Ate way too many pumpkin cookies courtesy of my brother. Thanks Chris.


Will post photos of my classroom soon.

Pressure-cooker kindergarten

A new emphasis on testing and test preparation -- brought on by politicians, not early education experts -- is hurting the youngest students.


By Patti Hartigan | August 30, 2009

Christine Gerzon is the epitome of a kindergarten teacher: warm and wise, quick to get down on her knees to wipe a tear or bandage a boo-boo. She can rhapsodize for hours about a single leaf and philosophize convincingly about the pedagogical uses of papier-mache. “I teach because it’s my calling,” she says. “It’s my life purpose.”

Yet two years ago, after 38 years as an educator, she threw up her hands and retired. (Her last job was at the Harrington School in Lexington.) She couldn’t stand the pressure.

Pressure? This is kindergarten, the happy land of building blocks and singalongs. But increasingly in schools across Massachusetts and the United States, little children are being asked to perform academic tasks, including test taking, that early childhood researchers agree are developmentally inappropriate, even potentially damaging. If children don’t meet certain requirements, they are deemed “not proficient.” Frequently, children are screened for “kindergarten readiness” even before school begins, and some are labeled inadequate before they walk through the door.

This is a troubling trend to an experienced educator like Gerzon, who knows how much a child can soak up in the right environment. After years of study and practice, she’ll tell you that 5-year-olds don’t learn by listening to a rote lesson, their bottoms on their chairs. They learn through experience. They learn through play. Yet there is a growing disconnect between what the research says is best for children -- a classroom free of pressure -- and what’s actually going on in schools.

Take the example of a girl who was barely 5 when she entered Gerzon’s classroom. She didn’t know her ABCs, but one day in class she made up a song and taught it to the other children. But because of new requirements, “I had to send a letter to her parents saying that [she] is not proficient,” says Gerzon. “You tell me that [she] is not proficient in language skills!” The Concord resident, who usually exudes a gentle presence, bristles. “It’s destructive, even abusive. That’s a pretty strong word, but what do you call it when you take a group of children and you force them to do something that they are not developmentally ready to do? What do you call that? It’s abusive.”

Psychologist and early childhood expert David Elkind, author of The Hurried Child and The Power of Play, echoes Gerzon. When children are required to do academics too early, he says, they get the message that they are failures. “We are sending too many children to school to learn that they are dumb,” says Elkind, a professor emeritus at Tufts University. “They are not dumb. They are just not there developmentally.”


* * *

It’s been more than two decades since Robert Fulghum published the oft-quoted (and oft-mocked) essay “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” The piece describes a bucolic world of wonder, a place for cookies and afternoon naps.

That world is long gone.

Earlier this year, the nonprofit advocacy group Alliance for Childhood, based just outside Washington, D.C., issued a report titled “Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in Schools,” drawing from nine new studies of public school classrooms around the country. Kindergartners in the studies spent four to six times as much of the school day being drilled in literacy and math as they did playing.

Recess has been truncated or has disappeared entirely in some schools, a double whammy, since children are stressed out by the demands and also deprived of their major stress reliever. The report cites study after study showing increasing stress, aggression, and other behavior problems, and even breakdowns.

Roz Brezenoff taught kindergarten in the Boston Public Schools for 36 years, retiring five years ago. “I have heard stories of kids having what they call psychotic breakdowns in kindergarten, kids who are distressed because they are ‘kindergarten failures’ because they can’t read and they can’t write,” she says.

To be sure, many children thrive in an academic environment, and some parents seek out institutions like the Edward Brooke Charter School in Roslindale, which bills itself as “unapologetically college preparatory.” Teachers there assign nightly homework in kindergarten. But many children that age are not ready for that kind of work, and all are being held to new standards.

These changes grew out of attempts to solve another problem: a disturbing gap between higher-achieving white students and minorities who were falling behind. The state’s Education Reform Act of 1993 led to the establishment of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Tests (MCAS), given to all public school students in the state every year from Grade 3 through 8 and in Grade 10, to identify schools and districts where student performance is not improving and to hold those schools accountable by state watchdogs. As a consequence, says J.C. Considine, spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, “some districts have developed more challenging but appropriate curricula for kindergarten. But many others have curricula, schedules, and expectations that would have been seen in first grade or beyond 10 years ago.”

Around the same time, neuroscientists were discovering a period of rapid brain development between birth and age 5. These advances helped launch the “brainy baby” business, a flood of products that promised to turn tiny tots into budding geniuses. Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a professor of education at Lesley University in Cambridge, says that “parents are misled by Baby Einstein,” the brand that sells books, DVDs, and flashcard “games” aimed at helping very young children get ahead. “They are misled by a marketing culture and a school culture that tells them achievement in early childhood is children sitting at tables doing work sheets.”

Then came the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, which links federal funding for schools to performance on standardized tests beginning in the third grade. Its passage “put the nail in the coffin” for the old ways, says Ed Miller, coauthor of the Alliance for Childhood study. “Faced with serious sanctions, they weren’t going to say, ‘OK, let them play and do all the things they used to do,’ ” Miller says. “Instead, we have to put them in testing boot camp well before third grade.”

President Obama has repeatedly emphasized the importance of early childhood education and has committed $5 billion to early learning programs. Yet it’s still unclear exactly what changes the administration will make to No Child Left Behind. “The challenge is to attune the learning experience to how children are at that point in their development, rather than trying to make them something they aren’t,” says Carol Copple of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a Washington, D.C., accreditation group. “We need to make the schools ready for the kids, not make the kids ready for the schools.”

* * *

Some educators are struggling to bridge the gap between best practices and the politically driven demand for accountability. Teacher Michael Kenney sits cross-legged on the floor of his cheerful classroom at the Thomas J. Kenny Elementary School in Dorchester. It’s time for reading, and a teacher’s aide leads some of the children to another room to read out loud to them. These youngsters aren’t ready to read yet, and Kenney and principal Suzanne Federspiel have decided that a reading lesson would only frustrate them. “There is more pressure for children to be readers by the end of kindergarten, and we try to put the pressure on us, not on them,” Federspiel explains.

Addressing the remaining students, Kenney pulls out a fly swatter with a hole cut in the middle. “In our classroom, this isn’t a fly swatter, it’s a word swatter,” he says. “I want to find a word, so wham, boom, I swat it!” He whacks the word “the” on a large text mounted on an easel. The children giggle, and for the next 10 minutes, they take turns swatting words. Their glee is infectious, and their swats are precise.

Later, it’s time for a writing workshop, and a little break. “If you are done with your drawing and your sentence, you get 20 minutes to play,” Kenney says to resounding cheers. “But do a good job, capiche?” In unison, the children respond “Capiche!” In the housekeeping area, two girls are dressing up in hospital scrubs. A boy crawls around the room, meowing like a cat. No one bats an eye.

This is a place of creativity and joy, but it’s a tenuous balance. “I try to mix the fun and the lessons,” Kenney says. “But we are testing them so much that I barely have time to teach the curriculum. These are 5- and 6-year-olds, and there is so little time for them to be kids.”

Ben Russell, assistant director of early childhood education for the Boston Public Schools, is struggling to find the right formula, too. “Some kids aren’t ready, and I fear for those kids.” Children who struggle in kindergarten are the ones who grow to hate school and who will likely continue to fall behind, he explains. “What becomes of kids who are not reading at the third-grade level?” asks Russell. “We use those numbers to create prisons. And that is a tragedy.”

* * *

Leadership comes from the top down in schools, but even the most enlightened principals and other administrators are bound by state and federal requirements. “In my mind, the expectations for our kindergartners should be a little higher, but that doesn’t mean the practice should be more rigid,” says Valerie Gumes, principal of the Haynes Early Education Center in Roxbury. After 21 years in the field, she says, she is weary of the demands to assess, assess, assess. “I’m not opposed to standards, but the amount of time we spend doing these assessments

. . .” A pause. “It’s really criminal.” A sigh. “But I’m not in charge.”

Anthony Colannino, principal of the MacArthur School in Waltham, objected this spring when the state began requiring schools to administer a standardized test to kindergartners whose first language isn’t English. “If you gave this test to the general population, people would be beating down doors,” he says. “There would be an outcry. If they gave it to my kid, I would say, ‘Tell me what day you are giving it, and he will be absent.’ ”

In fact, Colannino has a 5-year-old son who is about to enter kindergarten in Woburn. He says that his son, like many 5-year-old boys, is spontaneous and active. And since children are now expected to sit quietly for at least part of the day in many kindergarten classes, Colannino is more than a little worried. “He is curious and asks a lot of questions, and my wife and I are concerned,” he says.

What does it say when an elementary school principal fears that his own child won’t thrive in kindergarten? And what is the new emphasis on academics doing to the children? The Alliance for Childhood report contains chilling statistics. In Texas, the rate at which kindergartners were held back rose by two and a half times from 1994 to 2004. And in 2007, a 6-year-old girl in Florida was arrested for having a temper tantrum in school.

And what of Christine Gerzon’s former student, the girl who failed the official proficiency tests but who showed so much potential? “She’s still struggling,” Gerzon says sadly. (The teacher has kept in touch with the girl’s family.) Students get labeled young, at a time when their ability to perform can vary widely from day to day, and it’s hard to shake those labels later on. Children’s impressions of school, too, are formed early, and when they feel like failures at 5, it’s hard to turn that around later. The city of Boston recognized this last year when it formed a public-private partnership with United Way called Thrive in 5, an umbrella agency that is conducting a citywide effort -- starting support and play groups, distributing flyers about health and other kinds of resources, and more -- to help parents prepare their young children for school.

But these grass-roots efforts can only go so far. Early childhood experts have been publishing books, releasing reports, and testifying before Congress, with little change in public policy. Why isn’t anyone listening? “It’s not the educators, it’s the politicians,” says Russell of the Boston schools. “The schools don’t make the decisions. The politicians are making the decisions to meet political needs.” There is also an element of fear among educators, especially in a troubled economy. “You have to be willing to get your wrist slapped a little bit,” says Russell. “If the folks who know what’s right don’t talk about it, we’re never going to get anywhere.”

And now is the time. The Obama administration has pledged billions, but some experts remain wary that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is proposing policy that sounds like No Child Left Behind. “I think he has bought into the standards and testing model,” says Miller. “What we need is a whole reassessment and change of direction.”

Meanwhile, more and more children are “failing” kindergarten, according to the Alliance for Childhood report -- and missing out on the kind of early schooling that does help develop 5-year-old minds. Winifred Hagan is a former kindergarten teacher and a vice president at the Cayl Institute in Cambridge, a nonprofit that sponsors conferences for principals and fellowships for the study of early childhood education. She worries that vulnerable kids are being sent down a path to failure inside a system that was created to meet purely political goals. “Kids are spending hours of their day sitting with pencils and tracing dotted lines,” she says. “And we call that education? We are kidding ourselves.”

Patti Hartigan, a former Globe reporter, blogs about education at http://TrueSlant.com. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.


© Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company



http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/08/30/pressure_cooker_kindergarten/?page=1

...I learned how to use the absence reporting system...

While I'm looking forward to resting tomorrow and Tuesday, I'm going to miss being at school with my kids.

I was really excited for an activity I had planned for Tuesday...and now the sub gets to do it. :P

Here's an email from one of the kinder teachers that made me laugh and also made me really appreciative of the K-team at my school (and clearly I'm ignoring her advice for this brief moment to share it with you all):

Dear Alex,

Here's hoping the combination of antibiotics and rest will restore you to heath. But I've got this feeling that, because you are very conscientious and full of good ideas, you might not be completely honest with yourself about what resting entails. So, as an older woman with a lot of experience in this area, I'm telling you:
-resting is lying down.
-resting is napping.
-some reading can be resting.
-some television watching can be resting.
But the following are not resting,
-writing lesson plans.
-creating flip charts.
-completing assignments.
Oh, I know that all of the above can relieve stress. But they use a lot more energy than one realizes, so I suggest that you set a timer and limit yourself to an hour's work at a time, maintaining a minimum work/rest ratio of 1:2 (8 hours or work, 16 hours of rest per 24 hour period.)

I know. Easier said than done.

Get well, Alex! We want you back at full power.

See you Wednesday at the earliest,
Laurie

PS Two more things that really are not resting:
-reading most emails, including this one.
-answering most emails.
Sorry 

"Well, your flu test is negative, and your chest x-ray looks like you have bronchitis, but you have none of the symptoms. So, here's a z-pack."

3 in 1 day??

I emailed this out but forgot to post it on September 11th.

http://attacked911.tripod.com/

Stupid is as stupid does.

Phone call home to my dad today (well, truth be told, I call him everyday, but this is an excerpt from today):

Dad, maybe you can just clarify this for me, but will I really have to deal with BS for the rest of my life? I thought just maybe that since I graduated from college, maybe, in graduate school, I might deal with MATURE and GROWN-UP people, but I guess I'm wrong. So really, will this be how the rest of my life is?


...Today was a good day, although the end, at class tonight, was a reality check for me. Sometimes I think my optimism can bite me in the butt (I can't think of any other phrase! :P). I've realized that while I may choose who I consider a close friend and the people I spend most of my time with, for the rest of my life, there will always be people who I have to interact with who on occasion drive me a little crazy.

Tonight was just one of those nights when it hit me, and it was kind of a bummer. There will always be people who don't grow up, despite the fact that many of us grow up far before we should. Maturity does not necessarily come with age.

...and while I do genuinely like 99.9% of people and I try to be open-minded (and I will also give the people who drove me a little crazy tonight 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and millionth chances if it comes down to it), I have to toss these quotes out there:

"Don't waste my time, cause I'll never get that back." -Nnnenna

"I hate stupidity." -Chris and Dad...perhaps it's a family motto?

I really do hate wasting my time, and I also hate stupidity. (FYI as far as I'm concerned, stupidity has nothing to do with actual intelligence. In fact, I know a couple extremely intelligent people who I would consider stupid in some respects).

Long story short, I don't want to be judgmental, but the truth is, that's the heart of this post. It's been a long day, I'm tired, and I'm venting. This is momentary judgment on my part, and I'm not necessarily proud of it, but at the same time, every now and then I have a day where this is how I feel. Tomorrow, I may feel different.



In other news, I have a kid who wore a fedora to school last week.

Crazies.

My voice is back!

Good news-I can talk. It hurts, but I can talk.

Bad news-Sleeping all this weekend means that the getting ahead I had planned to do=lots of catching up to do now.

This is just frustrating, because it means that instead of getting to recover, I'm just pushing forward and hoping I stay where I'm at and don't get sick again.

In many respects, I feel REALLY good, but in others, I'm bummed. It's stressful having all this stuff to do and feeling like there really isn't enough time in the day to get it done.

Example:
Today, I woke up at 6:35.
Left for school at 7.
Photocopied/set-up/etc. from 7:25-8.
School 8-3.
Staff meeting 3-4.
Grad school seminar 5-8.
Office Depot run, dinner, shower, work. 8:30-11.
11:12-Write a blogpost. :)
Time for bed.

**I recommend buying stock in Office Depot since I spend so much money there, surely stock will go up.

"Teacher, what's wrong with your voice? Do you feel bad?"

Well, we survived Friday. In fact, we did more than survive. I didn't have to move ANY clips on my behavior chart on Friday, which was VERY exciting. Everyone went home with a sticker and a pencil for being awesome.

However, I still cannot talk! In fact, it's worse! Yesterday I was able to make it through classes, but today I have barely been able to get out a whisper. Actually, I know it's bad to try to whisper, so I tried to talk normally when I asked my roommate to go buy honey for my tea, and my voice just comes out as a whisper!

The good news=I have no symptoms apart from losing my voice. I've coughed maybe twice today, and Thursday was the only night that my throat hurt. I had trouble swallowing food then, but the past two days I've been fine. I was actually very excited to go out this weekend and ENJOY being in San Jose since I don't feel as stressed by all the work I have ahead of me for teaching. Last weekend I felt quite the opposite!

The bad news is obviously that I still have no voice, and I have four days of teaching ahead of me. Plus, there really is nothing I can do except drink fluids and rest my voice.

So, fingers crossed that my voice will recover by Tuesday. Thank goodness for the long weekend!

Please send any magic cures for laryngitis my way!!

Easier but not easy

Each day is getting easier, but it's certainly not easy yet, and I don't expect it to ever be that way.

I am really proud of my students for how they have been making good decisions and helping each other, and while I feel that we have a challenging class, I can see how hard everyone is trying each day. I cannot wait to see how much my students grow and blossom this year, because I firmly believe each of them can be ready for 1st grade at the end of the year.

Also, I am very excited about the fact that the kindergarten team seems to be working together more. There are 8 of us, and for some reason, the team has never really worked together that well (or so I've heard from everyone). However, today, when my co-teacher left, she told me she hasn't felt this happy in a long time, and she really thinks that we are getting to a point where the 8 of us can make our classes great.

I told her I intend on being the glue that makes our team stick together. :) ...and she said she thinks I may be just the person to get us working as a team...so let's hope she's right, because I think if we're going to give ALL our kids the best start to school then we need to work together.

Off to bed.

(Oh, and by the way, I am currently driving a Jetta. It's odd having 4-doors on a car. Hopefully mine will be fixed by Friday...for those of you that don't know, someone made a 6-inch cut in the convertible top back in June. Pointless, but I had to get the entire top replaced so it's finally in the shop.)

September is...

September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness month.

Many of you may know this is a cause very near and dear to me, and the statistic I'll toss out this year is:

* The overall five-year relative survival rate for all women with ovarian cancer is 46 percent.
* However, the survival rate improves greatly to 93 percent if the cancer is diagnosed at an early stage before it has spread. Only 19 percent of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed at this local stage.

If you, your sister, your mom, (etc. etc.) are diagnosed early enough, the survival rate is FAR greater than the later stage diagnoses. If you don't know the symptoms, it's hard to know the questions to ask a doctor and to catch the disease early.

Friday, September 4th, is National Teal Day. "Teal is the ovarian cancer community’s color and serves as a reminder that ovarian cancer is the deadliest of all the cancers of the reproductive system and a leading cause of cancer death among women." (ovariancancer.org)

I hope you wear teal on Friday!

Oh, and by the way, I REALLY want this shirt. :) Perhaps when I finally get paid...


P.S. I am getting pretty darn good at making up songs for pretty much anything for my class.

Perseverance

Super cool book:

http://carolynrubenstein.com/book/about/

The author is also the founder of the organization that gave me a scholarship! I feel VERY lucky to be a part of it. Check it out. :)

"Back to school! Back to school, to prove to Dad that I'm not a fool! I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight!"

This year is going to be challenging but so wonderful. Here's the news on my class after the first two days.

I have one student who on Day 1 at snack time put a glue stick in her mouth--I had to pry it out. I did not give my students gluesticks...

Today, my co-teacher had to hold back the same girl so she would not hurt herself--she was kicking and screaming on the floor, trying to pull a chair onto herself. We were able to calm her down, but then she got upset again, and my co-teacher took all the other students out to the playground while I took 15 minutes to calm her down. I think she's scared and doesn't trust us yet--it's only been two days so we are just going to work very hard to make her feel safe here. She told me that she is ugly and doesn't have friends. Another student told me she put a crayon in her mouth, and my co-teacher saw her put a manipulative in her mouth. I've already been told to start taking notes and documenting all this.

I know it's nothing out of the ordinary for a TFA Corps member to face these challenges, and yesterday I was upset, because even though my day didn't go that terribly, I just felt that overwhelming need of my students and all that I need to do. I want our class to be safe and filled with learning, and I feel that I definitely have a lot to do to get there. I feel so much better today though, because while it's going to be hard to get there, my co-teacher and I are going to plan together so that we can basically tag-team if need be if I have a student who needs to be removed or needs one-on-one attention. Plus, I have parents interested in volunteering, and so I am going to meet with them and try to get at least one parent in a day.

So that's the long and short of it. I have a lot on my plate for the next year, but I am feeling a lot better after talking with my principal and co-teacher. Though I may need to do a lot of the hard work all by myself, I feel very supported, which is quite a relief.

...and all of this is why I am convinced that pre-k is VITAL to a child's life and why whether in the near future or far future I plan to open my own preschools for children in low-income areas. However, those big goals will have to wait, and right now I am ready and prepared to work my butt off for my kids.

It's official...

...I'm a teacher! I'm on the website: http://www.arusd.org/2038207718203837/site/default.asp

We FINALLY got internet today, and I slept on a real bed last night, and I have finally met all the kinder teachers at my school.

Time for bed. I'm exhausted. I think I will feel this way for the next couple months...

Mi espanol no es perfecto...

Today I made 20 phone calls to all my students' families. Oh yes, I have a class list already. And keys to my classroom. And I met my co-teacher. And I made a behavior chart. And I'm exhibiting TERRIBLE grammar and punctuation here by starting all my sentences with "And."

Long story short, I survived. There was a fair amount of awkwardness when I had to attempt speaking Spanish on the phone...fortunately the parents I talked to seemed to appreciate the effort! I am hoping my Spanish will improve rapidly, as the rest of my year will be mixed between the two languages.

In other news, I received a scholarship for grad school! You can find out more about the organization I received it from here: www.cccscholarships.org. Too cool. I feel very lucky to be a part of it!

The best is yet to come however! Tuesday, my storage space finally arrives, AND we will have internet in our apartment which means life will be just wonderful then.

I cannot wait to update you from the comfort of my own apartment!! I hope everyone is having a great start to their weeks! Lots of love.

WOOHOO!

...After sleeping on my bathroom floor last night literally curled in the fetal position (quite an image I know, but I had a terrible migraine, and I am happy no one had to see me in that state!), I had a MUCH better Wednesday.

I am in math training right now, and it has been nice to see my curriculum...but it was even more exciting to pick up my own copies today, and my plan tonight is to enjoy reading it and looking at all the fun pictures. I anticipate a panic attack here or there when I realize how soon school is starting, but it's all good. :P

School starts in officially 2 weeks, and I'm excited but nervous and everything in-between.

All is well though! I'm just too tired to update, so I think I'm going to go home and eat dinner and go to bed.

More to come when I am not achy from sleeping my bathroom floor (what can I say? It's the darkest place in my apartment).

Internet+Bread Bowls=good stuff

Oh the joys of Panera offering internet! I am currently about 1/3 moved into my new apartment...but we have yet to set up internet so I have not replied to MANY of your emails. (Ahem, Kristina, Kati, and Darlene...I owe you all).

Today, after much IKEA browsing and debating, I purchased a bed. No, really I did. I also called my dad about 30 times in the past four days about this purchase, but I finally made a decision...

...are you wondering what I got??

I got this bed:


and this nightstand:


and whensoever I chose to have my storage space delivered (I'm thinking Saturday...) I will officially have a set up apartment.

As many of you may know, this is not my first time moving awesome furniture without the help of people stronger than me (a.k.a. boys), but today was even more intense than usual. My 100 lb. box-spring was a BEAST to get up to our fabulous 4th floor apartment...but we did it. So, I am now enjoying an iced caramel at Panera, and even though I know it has about 500 calories in it, believe me, this is a regret-free drink if ever there were one since I just busted my butt to get stuff to our apartment.




...Plus, I'm buying groceries from Trader Joe's later. So I will have fruits and veggies to eat.

More to come. Hopefully from my apartment--cause maybe I'll have internet soon?

Help! I need somebody...

I need help! So, I just signed a lease to a fabulous apartment (feel free to check out the complex: http://www.rental-living.com/Communities/The-Cypress/)...and now I have the task of decorating my bedroom.

Here are a couple bedrooms I like:




Thoughts? When you think of me, what do you think of? How should I decorate? I'll be hitting up IKEA sometime soon...most likely Saturday or Sunday. Any suggestions would be MUCH appreciated.

In recent news, since it has been quite a while since I updated with actual words (thought those pictures are priceless!) Institute is officially over, and I am up in Foster City, CA for two days of "Round Zero" which is supposed to help me plan for the upcoming year.

I also took my car in today to get an estimate on how much it will cost to fix the 6" cut in my convertible top. Thank goodness for car insurance, or I would somehow have to come up with over $2000...as they will be replacing the top in its entirety. Even the people at the auto repair place seemed confused: was there really a point in someone cutting the top of my car? Mm, pretty much no.

For this reason, I am trying to work our car insurance, renter's insurance, and of course, my favorite, health insurance, which I will find out more about at the new employee day for my school district in a week and a half. Apparently, I have a pre-existing condition...who knew? :P

(Interesting news for those of you who know the whole long story from D.C.: Apparently the Virginia hospital sent me a letter to check in and to see how their former patient is doing...I am tempted to reply...but not quite sure what to say. Would I have enough space to explain that despite the wonderful food, their post-surgical advice could not have been worse? However, as I constantly tell myself, at least my doctors at home were more attentive, and I am healthy and happy over two years later).

In just three short weeks, I'll have my very own classroom, my Kinder-Garden (oh yes, the theme is in full motion)! We are going to have our Busy Bee Helper Jobs, our Chicka Chicka Boom ABC trees, our apple behavior chart...and of course, we will be watering our garden with hard work so our flowers can grow up to the sky (in the clouds will be our hopes and dreams), and Mr. (or Mrs.) Sun will be college!

I'll update more soon!
Lots of love,
Alex

P.S. Jess, I know I have not put any pictures of Chloe up, but you'll be happy to know that she is doing well, and in the few short days my brother was home, she managed to get to sleep in his bed. One day I will write a book about Chloe's and my travels...but first we need to be in the same state!

Go shop at the Gap, Banana Republic, or Old Navy!

http://www.gapinc.com/giveandget/teachforamerica/

Just read this and tell me what you think...

STOCKTON - University of the Pacific said this week in its response to a lawsuit filed in March that it was neither hostile nor indifferent to a women's basketball player who claimed three men's basketball players raped her at a party and that the school mistreated her for saying so.

In a filing Tuesday in federal court in Sacramento, the school said that before filing the lawsuit, the woman and her parents had praised the school's handling of the matter.

The woman's Denver lawyer, John Clune, said Thursday that his client's relationship with the school deteriorated only after administrators declined to dismiss and permanently ban from campus all the men his client said assaulted her.

A woman identified in court papers as Jane Doe claimed in a March lawsuit that two basketball players raped her at a May 2008 party at Townhouses, campus housing on Pershing Avenue, and that a third player came into the room where she was and assaulted her as the first two players were leaving.

Pacific spokesman Richard Rojo said Thursday that the school does not consider the incident to be a rape.

"We would call it date rape," he said.

Rojo said the university considers "outright rape" and date rape to be different, in that date rape does not involve "a rapist jumping out of bushes and attacking people randomly."

He said, "These are people who knew each other. ... It's a social situation and unfortunately an all-too common problem at universities.

"It doesn't make it right. It's a sexual assault, and that's why the university took action in this matter."

Doe said in her lawsuit that Pacific's handling of the matter was hostile, causing her to feel unwanted at Pacific. Doe, a freshman, left the school.

The woman told a police detective she did not wish to file a criminal complaint, a Stockton Police Department spokesman said last year.

The university expelled point guard Steffan Johnson. It suspended point guard Michael Kirby for one semester and center Michael Nunnally for one year.

As of March, two of the three students were barred from campus, one permanently, the university has said.

Nunnally has said he did not rape Doe. Kirby declined to comment. Johnson has not responded to requests for comment.

In its filing, Pacific said it tried after the incident to speak with Doe in a telephone call to her home in Colorado but that her parents would not allow it. In that call, the university offered victim resources, recommended Doe schedule a physical examination and rape kit, and urged her parents to report the incident to police, the university said.

Clune said rape victims often do not initially want to talk to police or anyone else about an assault, and that Doe's reaction is consistent with that of other women.

The university's Judicial Hearing Board heard from witnesses June 16, including from men's and women's basketball players who said Doe was flirting with at least two of the men she said assaulted her, the university claimed.

One women's basketball player said Doe was engaging in "a lot of 'sleazy behavior,'" the university said in its filing. That student said Doe also "made comments such as, 'Who is going to get laid tonight?'" Pacific claimed, and two witnesses said they saw Doe hug one of the accused men after the incident.

Testimony from the accused men included testimony that Doe willingly went upstairs with two of them and willingly engaged in sexual conduct with at least two of them, the university claimed.

Clune said the response engaged in "victim-blaming."

In her lawsuit, Doe accused Pacific Vice President of Student Life Elizabeth Griego of blaming Doe for the assault and saying the three men "are very popular and do not need to force anyone to have sex with them."

In its filing, the university said Griego told Doe that "given the testimony of all witnesses questioned (which plaintiff had refused to listen to) there might be 'competing truths,'" and that it appeared from testimony that two of the men believed they had the woman's consent.

In an e-mail to the university last May, Doe's parents wrote, "Your support of (plaintiff) has been deeply moving," Pacific claimed. And in a June letter, Doe wrote, "The school has been very kind and compassionate to me," it claimed.

Clune said, "It's only after the university decided that they were not going to remove the three individuals that things turned sour."

In July, Griego and another official met with Doe and her mother to discuss the student sanctions, the university said. At that meeting, "Plaintiff's mother became irate, screaming so loudly that she could be heard outside Dr. Griego's closed door," the school claimed. Griego asked her to leave, the filing said.

The university denied Doe's claim that there had been an increasing number of reports of sexual offenses on campus, in particular her claim that at least seven reports were made in the 2007-08 academic year.

There were six reports made that year and two in 2008-09, Rojo said.

Record staff writer Jason Anderson contributed to this report.

Contact reporter David Sidersat (209) 943-8580 or dsiders@recordnet.com.

Kids said the darndest things...

Steve 3P0: Are you wearing a cross? Is that the cross Jesus died on?

Me: Mmm...not the exact one...let's go read a book.

It's odd being back in public school and realizing that talking about Jesus, God, etc. is not okay. I am happy though how many 5 year olds recognize what a cross is and know that they see them at church.

Budgeting...

I really want a pair of Ugg rain boots. However, as I am now a grown-up, I guess I cannot buy them...

In my mailbox today...

Teach For America has contracted with an independent mental health telecounseling company called Protocall for the duration of Institute.

Protocall is staffed by professional counselors and therapists 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Any information given to Protocall counselors (including clients' names) will be kept confidential by Protocall staff and will not be released to Teach For America.

This is a free service for any Teach For America corps members or staff who would like to use it.

PINK EYE OUTBREAK!!!!

So, as I mentioned, my roommate got pinkeye this weekend.

This morning, we were informed that Long Beach Headstarts were taking a precautionary measure to prevent a pinkeye outbreak since every classroom had students missing yesterday, many with pinkeye symptoms.

We're all standing there, people commenting that their eyes feel itchy or tight...and we're told we will still be there from 7:45 A.M. to 5 P.M. and just have extra work time.

In our first session with our curriculum specialist, I pretty much wanted to punch a few people in the room. We may teach 5-year olds, but we are NOT five ourselves, so people need to stop complaining. Suck it up; life is not that bad at TFA. Driving me crazy.

Then we had our literacy specialist session. Oh, I forgot to mention that at this point I have already had a diet coke even though it is only 9 A.M. since I had a migraine last night...and this morning... (This is another reason why I find everyone a bit more irritating...because my head is pounding...).

After our LS session, we are told we need to meet as a school, where our director fields questions about:
1. Pinkeye--do we have it, do we need to go get tested, what if we do have it...
2. Our Lesson Plans--do we need to combine them tomorrow, can we just do one less this week since we put so much time into the one for today...
3. The rest of the day--really? Why can't we just go back to LMU to nap and get work done?

Our School Director patiently answers a million and one questions, and then she tells us we will be having a TFA. Well yes, of course we are. We are IN TFA.

We are having a TFA, a Totally Free Afternoon.

AMAZING.

We are always the earliest bus to leave and the latest to return.
Today, we got back to LMU a good 45 minutes before anyone else, at 11:45.

Sno cones, mocktails, cotton candy all ready for us. Wonderful.

Went to the beach. Awesome. Sprayed on my SPF 70+ (no joke, my roommate asked what SPF I had, and I said: 60 and 70, nothing less) and headed over to Venice.

All went well. Super fun.

And then I showered.

And discovered my sunburn is almost as bad as it was post-graduation.

Which really I wouldn't even mention had my roommate not WATCHED me spray SPF 70 on until I was glistening. AND I reapplied.

I give up. Sun sun go away, please don't come again another day.

I'm off to bed, in a good mood although quite nervous to see how my back and shoulders feel tomorrow.

P.S. One last story that I have yet to tell...
We have two students in our class name Steve.
Stephen W. was absent on Day 1.
So Day 2 when he arrived and his mom introduced him as Stevie, and he put on his name tag, I thought awesome, we don't have to worry about mixing the Steves up.
Me: Hi! I'm Ms. Magiera, what's your name?
Stevie: C3P0
Me: Oh really? Well, your name tag says Stephen. Can I call you Stephen..or Steven...or maybe Stevie?
Stevie: My name is C3P0, and my brother's name is R2D2.
Me: Well that's pretty cool, but I'm going to call you Steve3P0 instead, is that okay?
Steve3P0: Sure (smiles).

Yesterday, Ava, who is in my collab comes up to me and goes: Stevie got mad at me today for not calling him Steve3P0. Yeah, thanks for that--apparently he won't respond anymore to Stevie... (all this she says laughing...)

I now fear that when Stevie starts Kindergarten in just a few weeks he will tell his teacher she must call him Steve3P0 since his teachers during the summer did. Who knew Star Wars was so cool to 5-year olds? Have I forever altered this child's future not by leading him down an amazing path of student achievement but rather encouraging him to go by the name Steve3P0?? Oh dear.